Best Value Colleges for Nuclear Engineering
Schools ranked by payback period — how quickly you recoup your investment through higher earnings.
12
Schools Ranked
$59,805
Avg. Earnings
1.3 yrs
Best Payback
337
Graduates
How we calculate value: Payback = (4 years of net price) / (major earnings - $35k baseline). A 2-year payback means you recoup your investment in 2 years through higher earnings vs. not attending college.
| # | School | Major Earnings | Payback |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL · Public | $69,535 | 1.3 yrs |
| 2 | University of Florida Gainesville, FL · Public | $59,124 | 1.4 yrs |
| 3 | Missouri University of Science and Technology Rolla, MO · Public | $62,674 | 1.7 yrs |
| 4 | Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus Atlanta, GA · Public | $69,338 | 1.8 yrs |
| 5 | The University of Tennessee-Knoxville Knoxville, TN · Public | $75,204 | 2.2 yrs |
| 6 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI · Public | $53,358 | 2.3 yrs |
| 7 | Texas A&M University-College Station College Station, TX · Public | $63,005 | 2.5 yrs |
| 8 | University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI · Public | $49,644 | 2.8 yrs |
| 9 | Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus University Park, PA · Public | $66,287 | 3.5 yrs |
| 10 | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, NY · Private | $57,318 | 5.3 yrs |
| 11 | Oregon State University-Cascades Campus Bend, OR · Public | $46,087 | 7.4 yrs |
| 12 | Oregon State University Corvallis, OR · Public | $46,087 | 7.8 yrs |
Payback uses earnings by major from the College Scorecard's field-of-study file, last updated June 2026, against net price from the June 2026 release. Scorecard publishes the two separately, so they are different vintages.